Heart of a SOLDIER
by noheartx
Summary: Sora and Riku set out to join SOLDIER.  They leave the islands behind and set out to fulfill their dreams.  But the lies of ShinRa will throw them into a journey of strife and pain.  Can the two friends endure the journey, or will they suffer?  SxK RxN
1. Chapter 1

Heart of a SOLDIER

Prologue: Dreams

"Riku! C'mon let's go!" A young six year old boy with gravity defying chocolate brown hair yelled as he ran along a sandy shoreline. Another boy, one year older than the first, followed at a slower pace, and he picked up a wooden sword lying on the beach.

"Sora!" The brown haired boy stopped and turned to face his silver haired friend. The older boy raised his sword and motioned for Sora to pick up his own. Sora walked over and picked up a sword that was identical to the sword his friend was holding.

"Ready?"

"Ready." Riku nodded in affirmation. The two boys ran at each other and locked swords, each holding their ground. Riku was a little stronger, being older than Sora, so he knocked Sora back with a quick horizontal slash. Sora recovered and thrust forward at Riku, who sidestepped before it made contact. Riku swung downward, connecting with Sora's arm. He winced in pain, but quickly rolled to the side to avoid any further punishment. He got behind Riku, and slashed horizontally, hoping to catch the boy of guard. But Riku spun gracefully and blocked Sora by holding his sword vertically. He then spun again and brought the sword down on Sora's back, causing the brunette to collapse face first into the sand. When he rolled over, he spit out the sand that was in his mouth and groaned.

"Augh! I can't believe you won. Again." Sora flailed his arms in frustration and pouted at Riku. The silver haired boy outstretched his hand and grinned, which Sora grasped returning Riku's smile with his signature grin. When Sora was on his feet, both boys dropped their swords and started to walk towards the little shack that was on the island.

"I see you two were enjoying yourselves." Both boys turned to see a young auburn haired girl smiling and walking towards them. "I guess Sora lost again?"

"Kaiiiriiiii!"

"Oh relax Sora, you did lose."

"Yea, I know…" Sora pouted. Kairi joined the two boys, and together the three friends went to the Paopu tree to watch the sunset. Sora took his place laying across the trunk and resting his back where it curved upwards. Kairi sat next to Sora's feet, and Riku stood with his back against the tree next to Kairi. The sky was a swirl of pink and orange as the sun started to set.

"Do you think we could be heroes?" Sora and Kairi looked over at their friend. He was staring into the sunset with an unfaltering gaze.

"What do you mean Riku?" Sora asked.

"I want to be a hero. I want my name to be remembered for something I did that helped other people. I want to have a legacy."

"Of course we can be heroes!" Sora exclaimed.

"How would you do that?" Kairi asked.

"Hmm, I didn't think about that." Sora said as he scratched his head.

"SOLDIER." Riku stated.

"Hmm?"

"We could join SOLDIER."

"Like, SOLDIER of ShinRa?" Sora asked.

"Yeah. I've heard stories that they slay powerful monsters, protect cities, and are heroes of the people."

"Well, how do you join?" Kairi asked.

"You have to be 16, and you have to be a good fighter."

"Then we'll train." Sora said as he looked at Riku. "And in ten years, we'll join SOLDIER!"

**So, that's the prologue for you. I know it may seem a little weird to start a story when my other one isn't finished, but I've been writing these at the same time, and this one is actually more of my focus. This is a very, very short chapter compared to the others, which are longer than the chapters of my other story. I'll get the first chapter up eventually, but this will likely come second to chapter 3 of Aspirations and Dreams. R&R**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1: Taking Leave**

"Sora! Riku!" I turn around at the sound of my name being called. An auburn haired angel is running across the dock of Destiny Port to catch up to us. Leaving her was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my sixteen year old life. She is my best friend. No, she's more than that. But, I can't think about my feelings for her right now. That would just make this harder.

"Kairi…"

"Oh thank god I caught up with you guys!" Since we were little I have had a crush on Kairi. I mean when we were little I didn't really know what my feeling were, but I knew I always wanted to be around her. And now, she's grown into this beautiful, sixteen year old. Her luscious, auburn hair falls down to her mid-back, and it was a little frizzy from all the running. But it doesn't matter, she looks beautiful either way. "So you two are really leaving, huh?" I look down, because if I make eye contact, there is no way in hell I'm getting on that boat.

"Yea, I guess we are."

"Sora, I'm going to go board the ship. Don't get left behind." Riku hugs Kairi, picks up his bags, and walks up the boarding ramp. I look back to watch him board, and he winks at me. Great, now he expects me to make a move on Kairi. Why in god's name would I make a move when I'm about to leave for god knows how long. I turn back to Kairi, and my heart shatters. She's crying. Fuck.

"S-sora… I can't believe you're leaving." Oh this is bad. I'm really not good with crying girls. I mean the only way I can make her stop is to stay. But, I can't stay. But nothing I say is going to comfort her, so why bother? But if I don't try she'll call me heartless and insensitive, which would be terrible. So instead, I'll just wipe her tears away. Her face is so soft. Even when she cries, she's still a goddess.

"Please don't cry Kai. This isn't easy for me either, but I have to do it. I want to get stronger. So I can protect others."

"I know I know, I just don't know what I'm going to do without you guys. It's going to be so boring!"

"What about Tidus, Selphie and Wakka?"

"I know but, they can't replace you two." Why is she making this so hard? I should get going now, or I'll never leave. I wrap my arms around Kairi, and she hugs me around my waist. Every fiber of my being right now is telling me to stay here, on the islands, with Kairi. Because I love her. Without her, I don't know how I'm going to get through the day.

"Sora, I want you to have this." She pulls out her good luck charm and places it in my hand.

"Kairi…this is-"

"Yea I know. But I figure you could use it a little more than me. And you have a reason to come back."

"Kairi, I always have a reason to come back. I…I love you." Oh god. I can't believe I just said that. I'm so stupid. Ugh now it's going to be awkward because-

"I love you too Sora!" Say what? Did she just…say she loves me? Holy Shit! I never thought this day would come. If I weren't hugging her right now, I would probably do a backflip. I hug her even tighter than before. Mmm, her hair smells like mango. It's intoxicating, and now I want a mango. Forget about mangos, I'm hugging Kairi. I should probably giver her something too shouldn't I? Oh, I know. I reach around my neck and unclasp the necklace that I always wear.

"Here Kai, take this." I wrap it around her neck and connect it. She breaks the hug and looks up at me.

"But this is your-" I smile.

"Yea I know, but I don't want to lose it. And you could –hmph!-" I couldn't finish my sentence because she crashed her lips onto mine. I recover from the shock of the fact that Kairi is kissing me. Oh my god Kairi is kissing me. Kiss back you fool! Now I'm kissing back, and I'm trying to savor every second, because I won't be able to do this again for a very long time. But, we break apart, much too soon may I add. But I really have to get going. This stupid ship is going to leave me behind if I don't get on.

"I have to-" She puts her finger to my lips and shakes her head.

"Don't say it." I nod, and we kiss one more time. I grab my bag and turn to walk up the boarding ramp. Just as I get off, it retracts and the ship starts to pull away. I walk over to the deck railing and lean against it, watching Destiny Port as we sail into the horizon. Soon, I can't spot Kairi anymore, and then the port is just a small speck in the distance. I hear footsteps come behind me and stop next to me. But I don't bother looking at who it is, because I already know. I pull out Kairi's charm from my pocket and look at it. I smile at the little smiley face that's carved into it.

"She gave you the charm eh?"

"Hn."

"And you gave her the necklace?"

"Hn." He was probably watching us. Perv.

"She's gonna be fine."

"I know."

"Then quit moping around. I'm not gonna say I know what you're feeling, because I've never been in love. But, staying sad isn't gonna help anything."

It's not like I can stop thinking about her just like that. I love her dammit. And now I have to go to a faraway city and become a warrior who risks his life whenever he does a mission."

"Lighten up. We're in SOLDIER now." I look over, and he's smirking. "And besides, you have nothing to worry about. She feels the same way, I know. I see the way she looks at you, I've never had a girl look at me like that." He's annoying when he's right.

"That's because they're too drunk to see straight." I smirk back.

"I'm gonna let that go because you're sad." He smiled and punched me in the arm.

"Yea yea. C'mon let's go find our room."

"I already found it. Follow me." I follow Riku down the stairs of the deck to a hallway. We walk through the hallway making an occasional turn, until we arrive at out room. "201…202…203. Here we are, put your shit in and let's explore." I follow Riku's orders and put my 'shit' away. Seriously this isn't shit, I need most of this stuff. I bet his bag is stuffed with porn magazines and cocaine. Ok maybe not cocaine, but he definitely has a porn magazine in there. He wouldn't be Riku if he didn't come with a Playboy. I don't really need to unpack anything, since we will only be on this ship for another day, then we will be in Midgar. I take a black beater out of my bag and replace my current shirt with it. The ship is pretty hot so I don't need a warm shirt. After placing my bag next to my bed, Riku and I walk out of the room and start exploring.

"I heard there was an intense training room on board this ship. You wanna go check it out?" Riku asks with hope in his eyes.

"Yea sure, why the hell not. It'll get my mind of things." I figure a quick spar with Riku will help me focus more. It makes sense right? I mean I always hear about how exercise can help reduce stress and whatnot, but I've never really used it as a way to calm down. We turned a corner to see two blond boys rolling around on the ground wrestling each other. Riku and I decide to run over and separate them.

"Uhm… what the hell is going on?" Riku asks with a confused look.

"Oh nothing really. We were just fighting over who gets the last cupcake that we have." I look at Riku, and we just start laughing. Apparently the two blonds didn't find it funny, because they just shrugged it off like it was something they did every day. "I'm Hayner, and this is Roxas. We're from Twilight Town." The boy Hayner was wearing a gray beater and a pair of army fatigues. The other boy, Roxas, wore a white t-shirt with a black undershirt underneath with a bunch of cool designs on it, and some white baggy jeans.

"Cool, I'm Sora, and this is Riku." Riku gives a quick wave, and shoves his hands in his pockets. Always trying to be the cool guy. "We were about to head to the training room, you guys wanna join us?" The two boys ponder this for a second, shrug, and nod in affirmation. We start our walk to the training room.

"So, where you guys from?" Roxas asks.

"Destiny Islands." I answer.

"Hmm… no never heard of it."

"Yea, it's a group of small islands to… I guess the south of where we are. Actually, I have no idea where we are right now. But I can get why you've never heard of it." We start descending stairs into what looks like the training room. All around the room is numerous, expensive looking training equipment. There are a few Virtual Reality Systems, a bunch of gym equipment, ShinRa made weapons, and other things that I would deem awesome.

"Sora, let's go test out one of those VR rooms." Riku says as he grabs a sword off of the wall. I grab an identical one, and follow him through the sliding glass door. I approach a console on the far side of the room and it hums to life. I stare at it for a few seconds, and try to figure out what the hell I should do. "Dude it's touch screen, just press the screen." I click on the button labeled DUEL and it brings me to a new screen. I yelp in excitement at the awesome technology, but clear my throat and try to pretend that nothing happened so Riku doesn't make fun of me. The next screen was showing me a bunch of different areas we could spar in.

JUNON MAKO CANNON

COSTA DEL SOL BEACH

MIDGAR OUTSKIRTS

MIDGAR SECTOR EIGHT

There were a few more options, but the only place I had ever heard of was Midgar. I decided to choose the option MIDGAR OUTSKIRTS because it sounds interesting. The room started to glow a bright, white light. After the light dissipated, I found myself standing across from Riku in a desert outside of Midgar. We were on the edge of a cliff, and if we looked out over the stretch of dirt and rock in front of us, we could see the Mako City itself. I turn around take in the vast surrounding sight.

"It looks so…real. This is insane Riku!" It really looks like the desert stretches for miles. I wonder if I can actually run that far. Actually, I don't really wanna find out. That would be really tiring, and probably not worth it.

"Well, Sora, what do you say we get started." Riku says with a smirk as he got into his signature battle stance holding his sword over his head. I must say, Riku has much skill with a blade, and his style is much more graceful than mine. While he holds his with one hand and has much more effective strikes, I use both my hands. And the style is a bit sloppy, to be honest. I prefer to wield two blades to be honest, but we ruled that a little unfair.

"Let's dance princess."

"Dude, that was lame."

"I thought it was clever…"

"Whatever, just fight me you loser." Riku took the first move as he charges straight at me with his sword held out in front of him. He quickly slashes at my midsection, but I parried the blow and countered with a kick to his arm. He recovers quickly and jumps backwards, only to jump up again and aim a vertical slice at the top of my head. What if that had hit me? Hmm, I feel I should voice my concern to Riku. As I parried another blow, I spoke my concern.

"Dude, will it hurt if we get hit?" Riku stops his barrage for a second, and pondered my question.

"I have no idea." I face palmed. "But, I'd rather not find out, so don't suck." I shot him a 'dude don't be a dick look' and he shrugged it off. Dickhead. I'll show him who sucks. Then, out of nowhere I saw a silver blade come flying at my head, so I ducked under, barely might I add, and did a flip kick into Riku's chin. He flew up so I jump up to continue my assault. When I was above him, I tried a double kick to his chest, but he blocked right in time with his sword. He still took the force of the hit, but he didn't take any real damage and he was able to land quite gracefully. When I finally touched the ground, he was instantly upon me with a flurry of sword strokes. I blocked most, receiving a few scratches from poorly parried strikes. Turns out, getting slashed in here FUCKING HURTS! Better be more careful I guess. ShinRa has some pretty intense training; this SOLDIER business must be harder than I thought. I charge at Riku and slash upwards which he blocks, but that was my plan. I quickly send him backwards with a kick to the gut, and follow up with a hit from the blunt side of my sword. He stumbled backwards until he fell over a very well placed rock onto his ass. I pointed my sword at his neck and smirked. He looked up and smiled back before taking my outstretched hand. Then, the room started to pixilate and disappear until we were left in the regular VR room.

"That looked so cool. ShinRa has some kickass technology!" I yell excitedly, which just earned me another 'why' stare from Riku. That's how we communicate a lot, by stares. I guess it's because we're practically brothers, but we just have that unspoken connection.

"That they do, but c'mon let's go get Roxas and Hayner. I wanna go back to the room and catch some sleep, I'm a bit tired." I nod in agreement and we strutted out of the VR room, well I strutted while Riku did his 'cool guy' walk. Screw being cool, I'm in a good mood. Better than when I boarded at least. I haven't thought of Kairi since we boarded. I mean I obviously just broke that little detail, but I'm not going to let it make me depressed again. No, it's back to being the goofy, idiotic, fun-loving all around awesome Sora! Of course, not right now, I am pretty beat. But that cupcake Roxas and Hayner were arguing about earlier sounds good right about now.

"SORA!" Shit did someone call me?

"Hn?"

"Dude, what the hell were you daydreaming about?" Roxas asks. Should I tell him I want his cupcake?

"Probably daydreaming about Kairi." Oh that is so uncalled for Riku.

"Not cool man, not cool."

"Kairi? OOOOOOOOO who is she?" Roxas and Hayner shout in unison. Damn you Riku, you silver haired bastard.

"Sora's girlfriend."

"Dude, shut the hell up."

"Why is he getting mad?" Roxas asks with a snicker.

"He's sad he's gonna be away from his love for so long." Riku, who I'm no longer speaking to tonight, outstretched his arm and put his other hand over his heart as if her were yearning for his loved one. I shoved him into and opened door that he was unaware of. I walked ahead with a smirk, and when Riku joined us, he had a red mark on his forehead. "Jerk."

"So, I hear Twilight Town has some killer sunsets." I say, ignoring Riku's insult.

"Yeah, Hayner, Olette, Pence and I always go on top of the station clock tower and eat ice cream while watching."

"Olette and Pence?"

"My other friends. Olette is Hayner's girlfriend, and Pence is our longtime friend. We've all known each other pretty much since…well forever." I nod.

"Yea, our other best friend, Kairi, well, I don't really know what she is to me anymore, but she's back on the islands all alone. I feel kinda bad. I mean we have other friends, but we were all really close and we hung out every day."

"Yea, I know what you mean. Leaving your girl is tough." Hayner replied.

"Well, I don't know if she's necessarily my girl yet."

"Dude, don't start that shit again. She loves you dude." Riku insisted

"WOAH. Time out, you used the 'L' word?" Hayner said in disbelief.

"Uh yea."

"Wow, that's intense."

"I guess, but I've known Kairi all my life, it felt right." Hayner and Roxas nodded, and gave me a pat on the back.

"You hit that yet?" I stared at Roxas with the most threatening look I could muster up. He yelped like a scared puppy. Don't get me wrong, Kairi is beautiful, and I've fantasized about ravishing her into submission, but I would never disrespect her in any way. I mean I'm not like that, plus she would kill me. Finally, we reached Roxas and Hayner's room, and parted ways. After entering my own room, I collapsed on the bed without making a sound. I stared at the ceiling, until I could almost see her face plastered on the ceiling. Why is it so hard for me to stop thinking about her?

"You okay man?" I turned to see Riku with a worried look on his face. "You know we were kidding right?" I sighed.

"Yea dude, it's not that. I just miss her. It's barely even been a day and I already miss her. Am I pathetic?" Riku let out a small chuckle.

"Nah, I don't think so. She's worth losing sleep over. We both know she means more to you than anything."

"Hey Riku?"

"Hn."

"Do you…like Kairi?" He was stunned I would even ask the question. He thought about his answer for a second, hesitated, and finally talked.

"I can't say that I don't have feeling for her honestly. But, I know that you are way better for her than I would ever be. And, she chose you. I think…that she made the right choice." I let that statement hang in the air for a little bit, until I finally decided to answer.

"Thanks, but for the record, I don't see why I'm better." Riku sighed, and pulled the covers over him.

"Get some sleep man, you're gonna need it. We arrive tomorrow." I looked at the clock to see what time it was. 10:06. I should be able to get about ten hours of sleep, give or take. I've been trying to make myself fall asleep, but I can't focus on anything. Besides her of course. I keep trying to think of ways to fall asleep, but nothing works. I'm just not tired. I can feel myself shift every five seconds, and it's really starting to annoy me. I can't get comfortable. I bet if Kairi were here next to me…yea ok like thinking about that is going to solve your problem. Dammit, what time is it. I turn to the clock. 1:47. Shit it's been that long already? And I'm still not tired. Maybe some fresh air will help. I guess I'll go up to the deck and enjoy the peace and quiet up there. I went through the hallways, until I finally reached the stairs that led to the deck. I get to the bow railing, and just start watching the waves. Dark, curling waves of water crash against more water, leaving a white wake and a quiet crash behind. It's really peaceful up here.

"Hmph. Isn't it past your bedtime?" I spun around to see a man in a dark cloak standing a few yards away from me. I couldn't see his face because he had a hood over his head.

"Who are you?"

"That, is of no importance."

"How did you get here?" The man opened up a black mass of energy, and stepped inside of it. About a second later another portal opened and he walked out.

"Any more questions?" I stayed silent. "Then, draw your weapon." The man summoned two blades of light from his hands. I looked around to see if there was a stray sword on the deck, but I had no such luck. I guess I'm going with my fists. "No weapon? You must be very brave…or very foolish. I care not which it is, you will not survive this encounter." The enigmatic man dashed forward and swung both his blades in and 'X' motion. I jumped backwards to dodge the attack, but I can't find any kind of opening. He slashed again, but this time just with one arm. I kicked his arm up, and glided under to land a few blows to his midsection. He backed off, and then shot some kind of weird black and white beam at me. The beam had a zigzag shape, and it looked dangerous. I decided it would be best to dodge it, so I jumped away before it could touch me. I charged in at him and punched straight out at him. He dodged easily, but I wasn't done yet. I then side-stepped and tried to kick him in the back, but he summoned a wall-like barrier to guard him. I felt like I had just kicked a titanium wall, but I shook it off. I wouldn't be surprised if I broke a bone, but I didn't feel any pain. He then started to jump and twist, swinging his blades with grace and precision. I couldn't manage to dodge all of his attacks, and blocking was out of the question. The first time he connected, I couldn't place what it felt like. It felt like… nothing had hit me. And yet, I could feel the pain. It wasn't a cut, more like a burn, but it was still a very odd sensation. After his combo was over, he seemed pretty tired out, so I took the opportunity to end the fight. I jumped up and landed an ax kick on his right shoulder causing him to stumble forward. Then I followed up with a knee to his back, sending him sprawled on the ground. Before I could continue my assault, he cloaked himself in darkness and warped to where he originally stood. "Very good. I did not expect you to be this powerful. Perhaps you will be of use to me after all."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"You will find out, soon enough, Sora." He opened a dark portal behind him and floated through it, disappearing into the darkness, leaving no trace behind.

"Who…was that guy?" I said aloud to no one in particular. What just happened. I got attacked by a weird guy with powers and he said he would use me. Use me for what? What the hell is going on. I should talk to Riku about this. I half sprinted back to my room. When I entered I saw Riku staring at what used to be a closed door.

"Dude, where the hell were you."

"On the deck, getting some air. Listen, what time is it?" Riku turned to the clock.

"3:01, why?"

"Shit, I was up there for a while. Ok I got into a fight up there, but it wasn't a normal fight. I'm pretty sure this guy was…was trying to kill me."

"WHAT? We have to report this!" Riku jumped up and ran for the door, but I grabbed his arm.

"No, no one would believe me. You don't understand what this guy was like."

"What do you mean?" I explained the whole fight to Riku. His powers, his weapons, up to his last words. Riku scratched his head and sat down.

"Hmm, that is a lot to handle. You sure this happened?"

"I'm positive. I felt the pain. And I know I didn't fall asleep."

"Was he a SOLDIER? Or a candidate?"

"No, he wore this dark cloak that seemed to radiate darkness. I don't know what he was." Riku paused for a moment.

"Well, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe when we get into SOLDIER we can ask around for some info. I'm sure we can dig something up."

"Yea, that sounds like a good idea. For now, I'm going to bandage up my side and go to bed." I took out a roll of bandages from my bag and wrapped them tightly but carefully around my torso, with gauze where I was struck. When I was satisfied with the support, I cut the bandage and threw my beater on. I laid in bed and placed the covers over my body, this time having no trouble falling asleep.

XxX

"Ow, what the hell was that." I look over to see Riku readying another pillow to throw.

"C'mon, get up. I'm hungry."

"No."

"Sora, get the hell up!"

"No!"

"Get up, or I'll get you up."

"Job's all yours buddy." There was silence, then Riku screamed and jumped from his bed to my bed, body slamming me in the process.

"OW! WHAT THE HELL!"

"Get up!"

"NO!" I felt like I was flying for a second, then I felt something dig into my ribs. Oh shit, Riku's got me over his shoulder. This is going to hurt.

"I told you I would get you up." He threw me onto the bathroom floor. "Clean yourself up, you look like shit. We're meeting Roxas and Hayner for breakfast. You got five minutes." He slammed the door behind him.

"You look like shit!" No response. "Whatever jerkoff." I readied myself in the time Riku gave me, and we headed to the cafeteria. When we got there, we saw a buffet and my morning grouchiness vanished. I grabbed a plate and stuffed it with eggs, bacon, pancakes and muffins. I happily walked over to the table where Roxas, Hayner and Riku were sitting.

"There's the idiot. What took you so long?" Hayner asked. I shrugged.

"Dude, that is a shit load of food. Will you really eat all of that?" Roxas asked in shock.

"Yea, he will. This is actually a light breakfast for him."

"Uhm…light breakfast?"

"Yes. You see I only have two of everything right now. I'm trying to not eat so much that it will weigh me down today. Usually I have four or five of everything." I explained with pride.

"Wow that's…insane." Hayner stuttered.

"Yes, I know, it took me awhile to get used to it. However, we have more important issues right now. Sora, tell them what happened last night."

"Oh right." I explained the story of my late night brawl to my new friends, and when I was done they were shocked.

"He could teleport?" Roxas asked. I nodded. "And he had glowing beam swords? And he shot weird lightning things? And he said he was going to use you for something?"

"Yes Roxas."

"Sorry, it's just…what the hell happened? I know you already explained I just…can't really comprehend it. And why you?"

"I know what you mean. It happened to me and I'm questioning my sanity right now. And what do you mean why me? I'm a strong guy."

"You know what I meant. Like why does he want you- know what forget it." Roxas said with a huff.

"Well when we arrive, you can ask Zack about it." Hayner said as he bit into a bagel.

"Zack who?"

"Zack Fair, the SOLDIER First Class."

"Woah, we're gonna meet him?" Zack is one of the most famous firsts, why would he be meeting us?

"I guess ShinRa wanted one of their top men looking over the new candidates so he could pick out the ones that would survive. It seems logical." Hayner explained.

"I guess, but what would he be able to do about it."

"He's a first, he has to have access to some secrets. Maybe they know something about this weirdo who attacked you. It's a stretch, but it's not like we have any other leads."

"Do you think he had a special materia?" Riku asked. "Just a thought."

"Hmm, that is definitely a possibility. We'll ask Zack about material with those powers." I nodded, and we continued our meal.

"But that doesn't explain the weapons does it? I mean I have these weird burn marks from them. That can't be a materia, can it?" Roxas shook his head.

"I have no idea. This whole thing seems whacked out to me but it's not like we can really do anything about it right?"

"Whatever it was, and whoever he was, we will figure this out. I got your back Sora, and I know these two dumbasses have it too." Riku said with a smirk.

"Thanks guys. Hopefully, I don't have to fight this guy again. He seemed like he was holding back. I don't wanna imagine what he can do if he is all that powerful."

"Of course, now let's go up to the deck so we can get out easy when we arrive in the port." We went back to our rooms and got our bags. When we met up on the deck, we could see the shoreline on the horizon.

"It won't be much longer now." The port was rapidly approaching and soon, we could make out the docks.

"Hey, do you guys know your way around Midgar?" Everyone shook their heads. "Great, if we get the job, we're gonna have to find a place to live you know."

"I know, but that will come with time. Right now let's just focus on getting in. I don't know anything about our competition, but I'm not willing to take any risks." Riku said. I nodded.

"ATTENTION PASSENGERS. WE WILL BE DOCKING IN 3 MINUTES. PREPARE TO EXIT THE SHIP." A man's voice blared over the loudspeaker.

"Hey, do you know anything about our test?" I asked. Hayner shook his head.

"No, we haven't been told anything."

"So we have absolutely no info, and we're walking into one of the hardest organizations to get into."

"Pretty much." Riku shrugged.

"This is going to be a nightmare." Finally, the ship docked and we got off. A few SOLDIERs that were waiting for us led us into the ShinRa building and took us straight to the basement. We were organized in rows by the SOLDIERs and when it was quiet, Zack strode in with his hands behind his back. He was wearing the standard black First Class SOLDIER uniform, with a giant sword strapped to his back. He stopped when he reached the middle of the room.

"So, you wanna be in SOLDIER huh? Well, I got good news, and I got bad news. The good news is that 50 of you out of the 300 here will become SOLDIERs after this test. The bad news is that the other 250 of you are going home on that same boat. Or, you may not go home at all." Murmurs were heard throughout the crowd. I looked over at Riku, who just smirked. "No doubt that all of you have heard that you will have to pass a test to join SOLDIER. You're test, is to get into groups of four, and carry out five missions worthy of a SOLDIER operative by the end of the week. Obviously, none of you are in SOLDIER so that's why you have groups of four. You will be issued equipment and materia, and after that you will get a mission from that guy in the suit." Zack pointed at a man with red hair, and a black suit on, although the sleeves were rolled up and the jacket was unbuttoned.

"Hey, I have a name you know."

"Shut up Reno. Anyway, you must complete the missions within the five days, or you will not pass. And you must always be on your guard, because failing is not the worst case scenario. These are real missions, and the danger is real as well. Don't drop your guard, even for a second." Zack stepped aside, and he showed us a bunch of tables with ShinRa made equipment spread out all over them. "Come up and get a sword, and a materia. After that, register your team and talk to Reno." Immediately, Riku, Hayner, Roxas and I went to the front and grabbed a sword for each of us. Then we went to the materia. Riku tapped me on the shoulder and pointed at Zack. I nodded and walked over to the First Class SOLDIER.

"Excuse me, uh Mr. Fair." He turned to face me, and smiled.

"Hey kid. What's up? Oh, and call me Zack." I nodded and continued.

"Right, Zack. Well I was on the ship and…" I told Zack the whole story about what happened on the ship. How the mysterious man attacked me, how he had weird powers and what he said to me. He got serious and started to think. "Is there any kind of materia that can do that?"

"Not that I've ever heard of. That is…weird. I'm sorry I can't help you with that. I can try and find out something for you thought. I'm pretty much on standby right now, and this sounds more important than a vacation to Costa del Sol."

"No, no no, you don't have to skip your vacation for this." He laughed, which I find kind of weird. I mean who would want to skip a vacation.

"It's ok uh…what did u say your name was?"

"Sora."

"Right, Sora. It's ok. I don't really want to go on my vacation, as weird as that sounds. I live for SOLDIER. I'll get much more enjoyment doing fun stuff like this than lounging on a beach alone. Trust me." I nodded and he put a hand on my shoulder." While you're out on your missions I'll do some snooping around."

"Won't you get in trouble for that?"

"Nah, I'm a first so I'm allowed to do stuff like this. Well, not allowed, but I won't really get punished for it. They need me you know?" I nodded again, and Riku came up to us.

"Sora, let's go, we got a mission." He handed me a Thunder materia, and I equipped it to my armguard.

"Ok, have fun kiddies, oh and Sora? Don't fail this test." I smirked.

"I don't plan on it." Zack smirked back and saluted, before going over to the red head guy who was handing out missions. Riku briefed me on the mission, saying that we had to go down to the slums and fight off some monsters that were messing with the citizens. He told me that since I was the fastest of the group, I would be in the lead for our missions, hence why I have a Thunder materia. Roxas had a cure materia, Hayner had Assault Twister, and Riku had Barrier. He said that they thought of the formation based on our skills, and he told me to 'go along with it asshole'. Frankly, I don't think the asshole was necessary, but that's Riku for you. We walked out of the ShinRa building and went to the train station. There was a train heading out to the slums now, so we boarded. The ride was pretty silent. I guess everyone is on edge. I mean it is our first mission, and even though it's just simple monster clean up, anything can happen. I'm pretty confident though, with four of us this shouldn't be all that bad. After about fifteen minutes, the train came to a stop, and the conductor announced we were in the Sector 5 Slums. We exited the train car, and made our way into what looked like a shopping district.

"We should gather some info about these monsters, see where they are." Hayner stated as he stretched his back.

"Agreed, let's ask around." Riku said as he walked towards one of the shop keepers. I went over to a man who looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties.

"Excuse me sir, do you know of any monsters causing trouble in this area?" The man turned and looked at me.

"Hmm? Oh yea! Those damn monsters at the park have been causin' all sorts a trouble 'round here! Why, just the other day one of my friend's shipments was lost because of those damnable creatures. Are you guys from SOLDIER?" I nodded. "Bout time they sent down some men to deal with those pests."

"You said they were in the park right? Which way is the park?" He pointed at a large door.

"You see that door there? Go out that and make a right. When you get to the big hole in the wall, you've reached the park." I nodded.

"Thank you. We'll go dispatch them now." I walked back over to Hayner and Roxas at the same time Riku did, and we confirmed the info that we had received.

"Ok, form up and let's move out." Riku took command and ordered. I took the lead as we exited the giant door, which led us to a narrow strip of land, surrounded by junk and hunks of scrap metal.

"Jeez, this place is a shit hole." Roxas said as he surveyed the surroundings.

"Well, it is the slums. What did u expect?" Hayner replied. We jogged over to the hole in the wall that the man told me about, and we entered the park. There was a swing set over on one side, and a jungle gym in the middle. Then, two large worm monsters slithered out from behind the jungle gym, and two frog-like creatures with spikes on their backs followed. Then, about twenty more came from every direction.

"Well, shit." Was my brilliant remark to the new development. I really wasn't expecting for more than ten monsters. "Looks like we got our work cut out for us eh boys?" I charged forward and shot a bolt of lightning at a frog in mid leap, which left burn marks all over its dead body. The sensation of shooting lightning out of my hand was weird. Very weird. But I had to ignore that for the moment, seeing as four more frogs jumped at me from each side. I quickly jumped sideways, slicing through the jugular of one, causing guts to spill everywhere. Ew.

"Ohhh, did you see that? That's disgusting!" Hayner shouted as used his Assault Twister to kill two more frogs.

"Of course I saw it, I fucking did it!" I shouted back as I sliced a frog down its back. Another three frogs leaped at me, but I dashed at them and did a wide horizontal slash, taking out all three. I noticed Riku out of the corner of my eye killing six in one shot. Always outdoing me, that bastard. After another minute of gutting, all that was left were the two worm monsters. They hadn't moved much since the start of the battle, so I didn't really know how to approach them.

"Why are we standing here? Let's kill these stupid pieces of shit!" Roxas shouted as he charged at one of the worms. When he was about five feet away, the worm shot something from his mouth.

"Ew! What is this shit?" Roxas shouted. His upper body was bound by what looked like webbing.

"It looks like it's some kind of web. Be careful." Riku said calmly. Hayner quickly jumped into action by running around the side of the two creatures and attempting an Assault Twister. Riku slashed off the web from Roxas, who charged at the worms, sidestepping a web shot. I shot a bolt of lightning at one of the unsuspecting creatures, but it didn't die. It just shrunk away a little, which was a mistake. Waiting behind it, was Riku, who quickly sliced the worm in half. The other was diced into pieces by Hayner's Assault Twister attack. I looked around, but I saw no signs of any remaining monsters.

"I'd say our mission is complete. That was way too easy, don't you think?" Roxas twirled his sword, and latched it onto his back.

"I guess it was kinda easy. Maybe we could get another mission from that guy in the suit. What was his name again?" Hayner asked as he latched his sword on his back in a less flashy way.

"Reno was his name." Riku answered. "Another mission would be good. We could gain a lead over the other teams with an extra day in case we fail one."

"Then it's settled. Let's go back to headquarters and do another mission."

XxX

I trudged into the headquarters feeling insanely fatigued. Two missions in one day was quite tiring. Our second mission was a simple monster hunt. Apparently, the science department needed to experiment on some monsters, so we were sent out to find something called a Sahagin. Since it was a fish type monster, we had to go into the sewers, which I wasn't too happy about. When we get down there, we were ambushed by about thirty of the damn fish things. And they were no pushover. After finally dispatching all but one, we had to find a way to subdue the thing without actually killing it. We decided to just fight it with our fists, which ended in us knocking the damn pest out. Of course, I was stuck with the job of carrying the thing back, which did nothing for my sour mood. After throwing the thing at Reno upon our arrival at HQ, I decided that that was enough for today. Since for the remainder of the tests we had to sleep in the basement, I grabbed one of the sleeping bags that were being given out, and set it up in a corner. I was tired and I wanted to go to bed, but Riku was not okay with that apparently.

"Hey, Sora. Get up."

"What? No get the hell outta here I wanna sleep." I muttered as I turned away from him.

"Sleep? Dude it's like six o'clock. Why would you sleep?"

"Because I'm tired as shit. We had two missions today. Let me sleep in peace. I promise you can be a pest tomorrow."

"Pest? I suggest you reword that." Riku said with a fake threatening tone.

"Can't you just go away for like, seven hours? Please?"

"Whatever. I'll be sure to pester you twice as much tomorrow." I heard him walk away, and I let out a low moan. Somehow, I feel like he's going to follow up on that.

**A/N: Updated 4/22/12: So I read this, and I've decided I wanna put more work into it. We'll see how that goes.**


	3. Chapter 2: The Ranks of SOLDIER

**Chapter 2: The Ranks of SOLDIER**

"So, you ready for this last mission, kiddies?" I looked at Reno with a smirk.

"Of course, this week has been a breeze. These missions are too easy Reno."

"I'm glad you think so, cuz the one I got for you today is quite a doozy." He handed me a slip of paper with new mission info on it. I started to read it over, until I saw what our target was.

"You want us to attack a rebel Wutai base? Why would you give that important of a mission to a few kids?"

"Zack pulled some strings. He said he wanted to test you guys."

"Heh, what are you worried about Sora, this won't be any more difficult than our other missions." Hayner said as he crossed his arms.

"I just figure this is a mission for a real SOLDIER operative. This will actually have an effect on Shinra. If we fail, then-"Riku put a hand up.

"Stop right there. Why would you think we would fail? If you haven't noticed, we've kicked ass in every other mission. Just because we're not SOLDIER yet doesn't mean we can't do this. Now, kindly pull the tampon out of your vagina and take the mission." I swung at Riku, but he ducked it and slapped me on the cheek, and then jumped back out of my range while laughing.

"Whatever. When do we head out Reno?"

"Whenever you're ready. I have a chopper ready for us on the roof."

"Us? You're gonna come too?"

"Well, I'm actually just taking you."

"Oh, so you're our chauffeur?" Roxas asked, earning him a glare from Reno.

"Chauffeur my ass. I should make you walk there."

"You wouldn't do that to us Reno. Deep down, you're a softie." I said as I pinched Reno's cheek. He flailed his arms around in an attempt to get me off.

"Hey hey! Get the hell off of me! Damn, I am going to kill whoever assigned me to deal with you guys." Reno shouted as he turned towards the elevator. "Be on the roof in ten minutes or I'm leaving you guys here." We laughed at the red head's reaction. When we calmed down, we equipped our materia and grabbed our swords. Zack had upgraded our materia after our mission yesterday, I guess he wanted us to be prepared for today's mission. I now have a Thundara, Roxas has Cura, Hayner has Vital Slash, and Riku has Wall. It's nice to have some stronger materia, yesterday I noticed that my thunder wasn't hurting enemies as much as it did on our first mission. Thundara should be much more powerful, and against humans it should really do some damage. As soon as everyone was done, we took the elevator up to the roof, where we found Reno leaning against the door of the chopper.

"You guys ready?" We nodded. "Let's go." Reno jumped into the cockpit, while the four of us boarded the back of the chopper. When we were settled in, Reno started the engine, and the blades on top of us roared to life. Slowly, we ascended into the air, and we started our flight to the rebel base.

"I think we should go over the mission plan now." Roxas said.

"Alright. Well, Reno said that we would be dropping in about a mile away in case they have any kind of radar. It should take us about twenty minutes to get there on foot, fifteen if we really hustle. Since there are probably going to be sentries posted, Sora will act as a distraction and lure them away from the front door. Meanwhile, the rest of us will run around the side and break in through a window, which will put us on the second floor of the base. After about a minute, Sora I want you to dispose of the guards and meet us at the window where we break in. When we regroup we will form up and find Conference Room C, which is on the lower level. Hayner will place the bomb in the room and set the timer for exactly two minutes. We're gonna have to hurry our asses up to get out of there. Apparently, there are three Wutai Sergeants, so if we run into them we're in for a fight. Is everything clear?"

"Where are we exiting?" Roxas asked as he polished his blade with his shirt.

"Through the front door. It's not too far away from the Conference Room, so we'll only need about thirty seconds to get there as long as we don't run into too much trouble. When we're running out, Sora, you gotta use as much Thundara as you can to clear a path. Nothing can slow us down, or we'll be turned into dust. This here," Riku held up a tiny little cube of tan clay, "is Shinra C9. This shit could blow up all of Midgar if we had enough. I'm leaving you in charge of this Hayner." Hayner took the explosive and admired it in his hand.

"Is this enough?" I looked at the small cube of explosive that was no more than an inch long.

"I told you, it could take out Midgar if we had enough. Just wait, you'll see." Riku answered.

"Alright! I can't wait for the fireworks." Hayner said as he tucked the C9 into his pouch.

"Hey, squirts! We're here." Reno shouted from the cockpit. We landed quickly, and we hopped out of the chopper. We double checked our equipment one last time before Reno approached us.

"I'll be waiting here for you guys. Once I see the explosion, I'm giving you an hour. If you're not back by then, I'll assume you're dead."

"Well thanks for all of your confidence Reno; it really makes us feel better." Roxas quipped. Reno took out a cigarette and lit it.

"Yea well…don't die."

"So you do care? Well, a word of advice from a friend, take that cancer stick out of your mouth and step on it." I said as he took a puff.

"Nah, I think I'll pass. Thanks for the advice though, friend." We waved to Reno and took off in a sprint towards our destination. After about fifteen minutes, we arrived at the base.

"Well, I see the sentries. Looks like there are only two of them. Sora, you ready?" I nodded at Riku. I cracked my knuckles and crawled through the bushes until I was close to the entrance. When one of the sentries turned around, I jumped out and threw a rock at his head.

"Ow! What the hell was that?" The first sentry yelled.

"Hey! Who are you? You can't be here!" The second shouted at me.

"Those clothes…he's a SOLDIER! Let's kill him, I bet we'll get a raise!" The second nodded at the first and they both charged at me. This is going to be a little too easy. I ran along the side of the base with them following. When I figured we were at a good distance, I turned to engage them. I should conserve my Thundara, so I guess I just have to hack and slash them to death. I pulled the sword off of my back and jumped at one, running him through with my blade. The other one tried to stab me with his lance, but I knocked it away and slashed him across the chest. Like I said, too easy. I looked at the dead bodies, and something came through my mind. I just killed these two people. Was I…. was I ready for this? I shook my head, no time to get lost in my thoughts, gotta go meet Riku and the others. I jogged around to the front, making sure the coast was clear before I zipped around to the other side, where I saw a broken window. I climbed through to find Riku, Roxas and Hayner crouching.

"Finally, have any trouble?" Hayner asked.

"No, not really."

"Alright. Then let's go." We got up and stealthily made our way to the stairs. I took up point and made sure the coast was clear before we advanced down the stairs. The security around here seemed a little lax, so we had no run-ins on our way to the Conference Room. When we reached the door, we formed up on the left side of the door.

"Ok, I'm going to kick the door down, after that you three charge in and kill any rebels that you see. Be on the lookout for any of the Sergeants." We nodded at Riku, who took up his position. He kicked down the door, and we immediately charged in. I killed a rebel that was standing next to the door, and shot a Thundara bolt at another who was sitting in a chair. Riku charged in behind me and took out another rebel that was grabbing his lance. When Roxas and Hayner entered, only the three Sergeants remained.

"Hayner, you plant the bomb, we'll take care of the Sergeants!" I shouted as my sword clashed with one of the lances. Riku and Roxas quickly engaged the other two Sergeants, and Hayner ran up to the podium and stuck the bomb underneath of it and started working on arming it. My fight with the Sergeant was evenly matched, he was pretty tough, and I don't think Roxas or Riku were having better luck. I needed to end this fast. An idea quickly came to my mind. I quickly parried a thrust from the lance and grabbed the shaft. I pulled the Sergeant towards me and grabbed his neck, and I pumped a bolt of Thundara through my hand and into his body, making him sputter and sizzle until he collapsed dead. I went over to Roxas and slashed the unsuspecting Sergeant down his back, which he died from instantly. Riku pulled his sword out of his Sergeants stomach and wiped his blade off with the Sergeant's shirt.

"What? He won't need it." I shook my head and ran over to Hayner.

"How much longer?"

"Another minute. I just have to set the timer and…there! Ok let's get going!" We ran out of the room into the hallway, where we were greeted by about thirty Wutai rebels.

"Well, shit. Looks like someone raised the alarm." Roxas said in stupor.

"Yea, you think?" I replied sarcastically.

"Sora! We don't have time! Carve a path now! I'll cast wall, Roxas make sure you keep Sora healthy!" We nodded at Riku, and took off. I felt the Wall spell form up around me, and then I felt the warming sensation that comes with a Cura spell. I quickly shot five bolts of Thundara through the ranks of the rebels, which took out about a third. As we kept running, I hacked and slashed with my right hand, while shooting Thundara spells left and right from my left hand, occasionally feeling a Cura spell. We finally made it to the door, and I barreled through it, leaving the doomed base behind. We ran through the forest, until we heard a loud explosion behind us. We turned in mid sprint, and saw a fiery explosion rise through the tree line. We continued our sprint until we entered the clearing, where we found Reno in the same position as before, lighting another cigarette.

"That was a pretty explosion. I gotta say I'm impressed, usually it would take at least two Second Class SOLDIERs to pull of something like this." I bent over and caught my breath before answering.

"You...didn't...doubt us…did you?" I wheezed out.

"No, of course not. Now, when we get back, I'm buying you guys a round of drinks."

"Uh, Reno…we're only sixteen." Roxas answered.

"Actually, I'm seventeen, so I think I'll take you up on that Reno." Riku answered the Turk. Reno slung his arm around Riku and smiled.

"How do you feel about prostitutes?"

"Love em."

"This is the start of a great friendship, my boy." Riku and Reno laughed while I just stared at them.

"You guys are insane." We boarded the chopper, and took off in silence. I decided to bring up my earlier thoughts.

"Hey…did it bother any of you guys that you uh…you killed someone?" I asked. Reno spoke up from the cockpit.

"First real kill eh? Don't worry; it's normal to feel like that. It means you're human. You'll get used to it eventually." I sighed and Riku grabbed my shoulder. He nodded and I smiled. The ride home was pretty quiet, we were all pretty tired, and we needed rest. When the chopper finally landed, I jumped out, ready to get some sleep, but Reno stopped me. "You have to report to Zack first." I groaned as we made our way to the elevator. When we stepped out, Zack was talking to a red headed girl in a suit. Her suit was like Reno's except she kept it neat, unlike how Reno kept it; unbuttoned and wrinkled up. We approached the two, and Zack walked over to greet us.

"Hey guys. How was the mission?"

"It was tough. Why the hell did you send us on that mission?" I asked.

"Because I knew you could handle it. And it was a sure-fire way to get you into SOLDIER."

"Whatever. Who's your friend?"

"Oh, that's Cissnei, she's a Turk."

"She's cute." Riku said suggestively.

"Not now Riku." I scolded as sighed.

"Right, sorry."

"Sora, can we talk in private?"

"Uh yea sure?" I followed Zack into a remote corner of the room. "What's up?"

"Well, I was talking to Cissnei about your problem."

"You mean the fight with that guy?" I asked. Zack nodded.

"Yea. She gave me all of the information she could."

"Is she allowed to do that?"

"No, but no one has to find out. She's a Turk, so she's privy to all of the company's secrets. Every experiment, crisis, and corrupted employee."

"I see. Well, what did she have to say?"

"We can't really talk about it here, too many ears." He pointed at Reno.

"What's wrong with Reno?"

"Well, he's a Turk. Part of the job is to keep the company's secrets exactly that. Secrets. Things wouldn't be good if he found out Cissnei was feeding me information. Why don't you come to my apartment with me? We can talk freely there."

"Alright, when do you want to go?"

"Now is as good a time as ever. Just go tell your friends you're going out." I nodded and walked over to where Reno, Roxas, Riku, and Hayner were standing. Cissnei had already left.

"Dude she was definitely hitting on me." Riku said with a grin.

"What are you talking about? You're way too full of yourself." Roxas answered as he crossed his arms.

"She was undressing me with her eyes!"

"No, _you _were undressing _her_ with _your eyes._" Hayner quipped.

"Uh guys?" My friends looked at me. "I don't wanna know. I'm going out with Zack for a little." Everyone grunted in approval before going back to arguing about Cissnei. I walked back over to Zack and nodded, and we took the elevator to the ground floor. We exited the building and walked down the street until we reached an apartment complex called Midgar Suites. Zack led me into the lobby and we took the elevator up to the top floor, and when we got out we were in a very nice, modernized bachelor pad. Most of the furniture was sleek silver and black, and his couches were a soft black felt material. I saw at least three doors all leading into different rooms, and his kitchen had a very large refrigerator. "Dude, _this_ is where you live?"

"Yea, nice right? I got a hefty paycheck."

"Yea, I can tell. Do you bring women back here?"

"Woman and no. She's never been here before."

"Woman? You have a girlfriend?" Zack beamed and put his hands on his hips.

"Yep! She's smoking hot too! And she's all mine."

"Can I meet her?"

"Absolutely not."

"What! Why the hell not?"

"Because you're going to make an idiot out of me."

"No I won't I swear! No shenanigans." Zack rolled his eyes.

"We'll see." I huffed and he walked over to his fridge and pulled out two ice teas. He threw me one and I opened it, taking a big glug. "Ok, so enough bullshit. You want to hear what Cissnei told me?"

"Yea, go for it." Zack sat down on his couch, and I sat on the other couch across from him.

"Well, I'm she said she can't be too sure because she never saw that guy, but she thinks he was the leader of a group called Organization XIII."

"Organization XIII?"

"Yea, they're an anti-Shinra group that wants revenge on the company."

"Revenge? For what?"

"Well, about ten years ago, Dr. Hollander and a few other noteworthy scientists began experimenting with the power of the heart. Apparently, your heart has more functions than just pumping blood through your veins. They called it Project: HEARTS."

"Project Hearts? Why call it that?"

"Well, it was supposed to have been a special division of warriors. The subjects were supposed to be elite; the best of the best, even better than most First Class SOLDIERS."

"Even Sephiroth?"

"It's debatable. Anyway, these experiments worked on doing something with the person's heart to make them stronger. What it was, Cissnei couldn't tell me. She couldn't find the files on it. She said she would keep looking, but don't expect much. If she were to be caught snooping around, she could lose her job, or worse."

"Why is she doing all of this?"

"She's a really good friend. And she owes me a favor."

"It seems like more than that to me. She definitely has a crush on you."

"Cissnei? No she doesn't."

"Dude, she's risking her life to get you information about a kid who's not even a SOLDIER yet. And, when you two were talking, she was totally flirting with you."

"No she wasn't!"

"Yes she was! She was playing with her hair, and laughing! She even slapped you in the chest after you told a joke or something. She wants to get in your pants."

"Dude! I have a girlfriend!"

"Does she know that?"

"Well…no."

"Ok, so she totally wants in your pants. I don't see that as a bad thing. Like Riku said, she's cute."

"Then let Riku have her!"

"I have no doubt that he's already trying to get her."

"He just met her."

"That's never stopped him before."

"He's like a mini Reno."

"Yea, they've already established a relationship based on drinking and prostitutes. They're going out for a beer later." Zack slapped his forehead.

"That is not going to end well." I chuckled.

"No, it definitely won't. Anyway, we should get back. I want to talk to Riku about getting an apartment."

"Hey, that's a good idea, since you're guaranteed to get into SOLDIER. Go looking for one tomorrow. I can loan you guys some money to put down until you get your first paycheck."

"That would be great. Thanks a lot man."

"Anything for my protégé."

"Protégé?"

"Yes, I'm taking you under my wing."

"Well, thanks Mr. Fair." I said sarcastically. He laughed.

"Hey, it helps to have a mentor. I had one of the best."

"You did? Who was that?"

"Angeal Hewley."

"Wait, Angeal Hewley the First Class SOLDIER?"

"Yea…" Zack trailed off and his expression became solemn.

"He was KIA a while ago, right?" Zack looked up and laughed.

"KIA? Where'd you hear that?"

"It was all over the news a while ago. Him and the other first, Genesis Rhapsodos."

"Oh that's right. Shinra told those lies to the world. I remember getting that e-mail and laughing at its absurdity."

"Wait, they're not dead?" Zack looked down at the ground.

"Well, they are now."

"How do you know?" Zack sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

"…Because I killed them." My eyes widened, and I stared at Zack.

"You…killed them?" Zack nodded, and a sad smile found its way to his face.

"Yea. A while ago, Dr. Hollander, the same guy in Project: HEARTS left Shinra. Genesis followed him, because he wanted revenge on Shinra. Said they turned him into…into a monster."

"A monster?"

"Yes. Angeal and Genesis were both part of Project G, or Project Gillian. They were infused with Jenova cells while they were in the womb, which is why they are so strong. At first, Angeal followed Genesis' betrayal. But, he helped us during one of Genesis' attack on Shinra. After that, he gave me the location of Genesis. I had a mission to go to Modeioheim and stop him. I went to and abandoned Mako facility outside of Modeioheim and found Genesis in one of his bases that he used to make the copies. We fought, and it ended in him jumping off of the platform into the Mako pit."

"So that's when Genesis died?"

"Yes. After that, I went to the town of Modeioheim itself. There, I found Angeal and Hollander. Hollander revealed the true nature of Project G, and that he was Angeal's father. Angeal told me it should have been him to kill Genesis, not me. When I asked him why he made me do it, he said it was to prepare me for my next fight. Angeal was convinced he was a monster, so he transformed into one. We fought, and I killed him." Zack was silent for a while. "He gave me his sword, his symbol of pride. I was heartbroken."

"…I…"

"He died in my arms. He looked…happy. So peaceful. He was my best friend. For weeks, I couldn't focus. I was lost in despair and anger. Shinra did this, and I cannot forgive them for it."

"Then why do you work for them?"

"Because the world still needs a hero. And I'll do anything to protect the people that I care about. If that means working for Shinra, then so be it." I stared in awe at Zack.

"I'm sorry. I…don't know what it would be like to lose Riku or Kairi. And…kill them no less."

"Every day I live with it. And, I think Angeal wanted me to do it. He wasn't happy, or at least not as happy as he could have been. Genesis was his best friend, they knew each other since they were little, brothers technically. He had to watch his best friend become insane with revenge. It was hard on him."

"I can't believe Shinra has done such things." Zack sighed and stood up.

"I know what you mean. I wasn't expecting any of this when I joined. And you have your own problem with HEARTS and Organization XIII. Apparently they've taken an interest in you."

"I have a feeling that doesn't bode well for me." Zack nodded, and then scratched his head.

"Everything in Shinra is corrupted. The scientists don't care about anything but experimenting, the Department Heads only care about money, and we in SOLDIER are only supposed to fight. Thinking isn't on our job description."

"Heh, that makes us sound like robots."

"That's what we are to the higher ups. Drones that will do their bidding whenever they want. It's sick. And there's nothing we can do." I stood and walked over to Zack's door.

"Well, no use sulking about it now. Let's get back to the others." I clicked the elevator button, then turned back to face Zack. "Hey, is this information classified?"

"Of course. Why, were you planning on telling your friends?" I nodded.

"They know about my run in with the guy on the ship. They're definitely expecting something."

"I figured. I don't care if you tell them; just make sure it doesn't get out." I nodded and we both stepped into the elevator. It carried us down to ground floor, where we departed for the Shinra building.

"This place looks good." I glanced at Riku while he was examining the empty apartment. After my talk with Zack yesterday, we went back to Shinra, and I told everyone that we should look for an apartment. They agreed, and after a much needed rest, we went out to find one. Right now, we were at a place called Midgar Apartment Complex. It wasn't as nice as Zack's place, but it was homey. And the place we were looking at had blue carpet, which I think is pretty damn cool. Right now Riku and I were looking at a two bedroom apartment on the fourth floor of the apartment, and Roxas and Hayner were looking at one across the hallway. "I like it dude. We should definitely get it."

"Yea, I agree. Let's get Rox and Hayner and go talk to the proprietor." He nodded at me and we walked out of the room across the hall into the apartment '4J'. We entered to see Roxas and Hayner lying on the carpet, which was orange. Does this complex have awesome carpet or what?

"Hey guys, we're gonna go talk to the guy who's selling these. Get up and let's go." Riku said to the other guys.

"Ok, but have you felt how soft this carpet is? I gotta say this alone won me over." Hayner said as he got up and stroked the carpet lovingly.

"Right, well you can fondle the carpet later man." I said with a grin. He scowled before muttering something like 'at least I fondle something' and standing up. Roxas followed suit and soon we were at the front desk talking to the proprietor.

"So, you boys want to buy some apartments? Why did you come to Midgar? You boys are pretty young."

"We're in SOLDIER." I answered. He nodded at pulled out a few papers.

"Another group of kids aspiring to be like Sephiroth eh? I see. Well, it's dangerous out there. I got a friend in SOLDIER; he says it gets pretty rough out there. I hope you boys know what you're getting yourselves into."

"We know sir." He took out a few pens and handed one to each of us.

"I hope so. I'm just going to need for you to fill these forms out." I looked over the form and it was just standard information. Date of birth, age, occupation etc. I filled it out and signed it at the bottom and gave it back to the man. He looked over each form and nodded. "All right. These look good. Now, I'm going to need about you guys to put down some money now. I have-"I tuned the man out. I wasn't really interested in all of this technical shit. And I know Riku has it covered. Despite what a lot of people like, Riku is fucking brilliant. Guy knows how to bargain. And he's just naturally intelligent. He makes me feel stupid a lot of the time. After another five minutes, we had the apartments paid for and we were heading out to buy some furniture. Zack had lent us money for both the apartments and to buy furniture too.

"We are going to have to pay Zack a shit load of money after this." I complained.

"Oh I didn't even think about that. We are going to be broke for so long." Roxas whined in agreement.

"Hey, this store looks good. Let's go." Riku walked into a store called City Furniture Retailer. When we walked in, a guy who looked to be in his mid-thirties in a black sport coat and khakis approached us.

"Hello, welcome to City Furniture Retailer. How may I help you young men?"

"We need some furniture for our new apartments." I answered, although it's kinda obvious what we want. This is a furniture store.

"Did you boys just move here?"

"Yes, we're in SOLDIER." Riku answered.

"SOLDIER huh? Well, let me show you what we have to offer." The man led us throughout the store, showing us what kind of furniture would be good for us. The store was pretty nice; it had hardwood floors and modern looking chandeliers hanging all over the place. The furniture was really nice and modern too. After about an hour of furniture shopping, and Riku negotiating, we walked away with four full size beds and mattresses, two black leather wrap around couches, two sets of kitchen furniture, a TV stand, a coffee table, desks for each of our rooms along with chairs for the rooms, and a two file cabinets for us to keep our SOLDIER files in, which Zack suggested we get. The TV stand and coffee table were to go in my shared apartment with Riku because I beat Roxas in rock, paper, scissors, which he was still moping about. We thanked the man for helping us, and he said the furniture would be delivered later that day.

"Alright now let's go get a TV." I suggested as we walked out of the store.

"You're just excited because it's gonna go in your room." Roxas muttered in frustration.

"Are you still pissed about that? It was rock, paper, scissors dude. Not my fault you went with rock."

"Whatever." We approached an electronics store, and sent Hayner in to deal with the TV. He was good with the technical stuff, so we figured he would get us a good TV. About twenty minutes later, Hayner walked out with a large box in his hands.

"That's okay guys, don't help me. I'll be fine." He stammered as he struggled to hold the box up. Riku grabbed the other end, and Hayner let out a sigh of relief.

"Weakling." Riku said sarcastically.

"You wanna carry this all the way home tough guy?"

"Not really. But, I wouldn't whine about it."

"Screw you." We walked back to the apartment complex with our new TV, which probably looked funny to any passerby, and when we got back, we weren't really sure how to get it upstairs.

"Will it fit in the elevator?" I asked.

"Maybe, but only one person would be able to go in with it." Hayner responded.

"Ok, I got it." Riku wrapped his arms around the box and heaved it up. "Sora a little help here would be nice." I walked over and clicked the elevator button, and when the doors opened I ran in quickly, pushed the button for our floor, and walked out, but kept my arm in so Riku could enter. The elevator doors slid shut, and Roxas, Hayner, and I went up the stairs to meet Riku. When we opened the door to exit the stairwell, I heard a bing, and the elevator doors slid open. Hayner walked over and took the other end of the box from Riku, and they carried it into my apartment. They set it down on the floor, and Hayner huffed.

"Damn, that thing is heavy."

"You're such a wimp Hayner." Roxas said with a smirk.

"Screw all of you, I am not a wimp."

"Right." Riku quipped sarcastically. Hayner grumbled something under his breath and jumped onto the countertop, using it as a seat.

"So what do we do now?" Roxas asked.

"We should head to the Shinra building soon, Zack said we need to be there for when he tells everyone who made it." Riku answered.

"Alright, then let's go." I said as we walked out the door. We took the elevator down to the street, where we saw the proprietor talking with the desk clerk. Riku went over quickly and told them that we had to go out, and that we were expecting a delivery of furniture. When Riku came back he told us the proprietor would have it brought up to our room. We waved to him and exited the building, starting our walk to Shinra. When we finally got there, a bunch of the other SOLDIER candidates were waiting in the room after they had done their last mission. Reno and Zack were standing at the front of the room, going over paperwork. I figured they were probably trying to pick which 50 out of the 300 were going to join SOLDIER, so I wasn't going to bother them. Instead we just decided to chill until Zack made the announcements. After about a half hour of waiting, Zack stood up in front of everyone and got their attention.

"Now, before I announce the new SOLDIER operatives, I just wanna say that for those of you that don't make it, don't give up. You have to embrace your dreams, don't let them go." Everyone was silent for a few seconds. "Okay so I'm pretty much just gonna read off a list of the people who made it. If you don't hear your name called then you didn't make it." Zack started reading the list off, and the first four names were ours. We high fived each other as the people who did not make it sulked. When Zack finally finished the list, the people who didn't make it were escorted out of the room. "Okay, so I would like to congratulate all of you on making it into SOLDIER. You are now part of the most elite group of warriors on the continent, and even though you start off as thirds, if you work hard all of you can become firsts. Just always remember to embrace your dreams, and protect your honor as SOLDIER. On these tables behind me is the standard equipment that SOLDIER operatives use. You will need a sword and you can keep the uniforms. We have standard materia, which you should take two of. If you want better materia you have to earn it." We walked up to the tables and grabbed a sword, uniform, and two materia for each of us. I chose a thunder and cure materia. After all of us had our supplies, Zack gathered us for one last thing. "Tomorrow you will show up at the Shinra building at 7:00 am, where you will be given ID cards. The SOLDIER floor is the 47th floor. Don't be late." With that, the crowd dispersed, leaving just my team and Zack.

"That was a hell of a speech." Riku said as he nudged Zack with his elbow. Zack scratched the back of his head and chuckled.

"Yea well I kinda stole most of that from an old friend."

"And here I was thinking you were actually smart. Turns out I was wrong." Hayner said with a smirk.

"You know, I can make it so you get all of the shitty missions Hayner."

"What I meant was that you are truly inspirational, and you will forever be my role model."

"That's better. Now, I have to talk to you Sora."

"Is this about HEARTS?" Zack nodded.

"Uh, Hearts?" Roxas said with a confused expression.

"Oh yea, I forgot to tell you guys. Well, why don't you come back to the new apartment with us Zack, and you can tell everyone there."

"Okay, that sounds like a good idea."

"Wait, does this have to do with that guy you fought on the ship?" Riku asked, to which I nodded.

"We can't really talk here. Just wait." Riku nodded, and we walked back to the apartment in silence. When we got home, boxes were scattered all around the room, as well as our couch.

"Well, looks like the furniture got here. Why don't we set it up?" Roxas suggested. We set up all of the furniture in my place first, and we were gonna do Roxas and Hayner's later because we wanted to hear what Zack had to say. The couch was positioned so that the curve was across from the TV, with a coffee table separating them. The kitchen had a table and four chairs surrounding it, and our bedrooms were set up to our liking. I had a desk next to my bed, and a chair in the corner of the room. We all settled in on the couch, and Zack pulled out a file.

"This is Shinra classified information, it was not easy to get."

"But didn't Cissnei get it for you?" I asked.

"Well yea, but it was still hard for her to get."

"Yea okay. So what's in that file anyway?" Hayner asked.

"This is a report that Dr. Hollander wrote while he was working on Project: HEARTS. I haven't read it yet, but Cissnei said that it has most of the information that you need."

"Alright, then why don't you just start reading it." I said a little impatiently. I mean can you blame me though? I want to find out why this weirdo tried to kill me.

"Alright jeez.

_Day 001: Project: HEARTS Dr. Hollander LOG_

_Today I finally got the green light for our newest experiment Project: HEARTS. The basis for the experiment is to create a warrior with power that will far surpass the strength of SOLDIER, even Sephiroth. While most of this is theory, I have deduced that the powers of the human hearts are far more complex than we could have imagined. They are not just organs that keep your blood flowing, they possess a kind of spiritual energy that no one has ever seen before, however it should resemble the Lifestream. Just like the Lifestream of the planet, the heart carries this Lifestream through your body and keeps you alive. It's a power that has never been tapped into by any known man, but I hope to bring out this power. We have arranged for numerous test subjects from within SOLDIER, the strongest we could get. For now, I hope that the experiments go well."_

"What is that? A journal entry?" I asked.

"It appears so. This must be Hollander's personal journal. Let's see what else he has to say.

_Day 004: Project: HEARTS Dr. Hollander LOG_

_The first few experiments have met with failure. I am perplexed as to how to continue. The spiritual energy that the heart possesses is extremely hard to control. All of our test subjects have died, and we have made no progress. I have a few ideas, but I'm not entirely sure if they will work. Only time will tell."_

"So Hollander failed the first few times?" Riku asked.

"Apparently. Let's keep reading.

_Day 017: Project: HEARTS Dr. Hollander LOG_

_Finally, success! One of our subjects, a man named Xemnas who I will now call subject 01, has given me results. I have used the power of materia, the Black Materia, and infused it with his heart. He did not die, instead he gained immense power over his spiritual energy. When we tested him, his power was very odd, it was like he was controlling darkness. It may have something to do with the Black Materia that I put inside him. After I run some more tests, and do some more experiments, I hope to have more data."_

"Power over darkness…Sora do you think…?" Roxas said slowly

"Yea, it might have been him. Although it said nothing about those blades of energy. Zack keep reading." I said eagerly.

"Okay.

_Day 035: Project: HEARTS Dr. Hollander LOG_

_My experiments lately have met with nothing but success. My latest hypothesis about using materia to control the spiritual energy has been a success. By using the materia, we can draw out the power of the heart and make it into a powerful weapon. We have done the same experiments that we did on Subject 01 on five more subjects. Subjects 02-06 have all been successful experiments, except their powers vary. Each of their powers are based on the materia that we implanted into them, and it seems it gives them full control over certain elements of nature. Soon, I will write up a full summary for each member we have success on, but right now I must continue the experiments._

_Day 054: Project HEARTS Dr. Hollander LOG_

_After a streak of success, one of my experiments has ended in failure. Subject 13 died after we implanted the materia in him. At first, I thought it was a faulty materia, but when I implanted the same materia into Subject 14, she lived, and has similar powers to Subjects 01-12. I don't know why Subject 13 died, but until I find out, I will stop experimentation._

"Wait, someone died?" Roxas asked.

"It seems like it. All of this is really confusing." Hayner said.

"I know what you mean, I don't really understand half of the stuff I'm reading, but let's continue.

_Day 068: Project: HEARTS Dr. Hollander LOG_

_I have found the reason for Subject 13's death. Apparently, besides the spiritual energy in the heart, there is light and darkness. Each heart has a balance of light and darkness, and without one, the heart reacts differently to certain things. It seems Subject 13 had a heart of pure light, therefore our experiments yielded a different reaction. It was an unfortunate turn of events. Ventus was a good soldier."_

"Wait! What did you just say?" Roxas yelled.

"Ventus was a good soldier?" Zack said with a confused expression.

"What does that have to do with anything Roxas?" I asked.

"Ventus…was my father's name."

**A/N: Well, that's a nice cliffhanger if I do say so myself. Again sorry for the long wait, but I got my computer taken away for bad grades and i also got sidetracked a lot. Damn my short intention span. Anyway I hope you guys liked this chapter. There's still more of the Hollander Reports to read, I haven't gotten through everything I want to say about Project: HEARTS yet. Next chapter will mostly be further explanation about HEARTS, as well as what happened to Roxas' dad. If you have any comments, criticism, or suggestions, shout em out. Thanks again for reading, peace.**


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